


Our Unyielding Expressions

by BelievingOreo



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Adulthood, Gen, Reunions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:40:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21899062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BelievingOreo/pseuds/BelievingOreo
Summary: It's been a decade since the last time μ’s performed together in the Tokyo Dome. It's been almost as long now since Rin was last an idol. So hearing their first song play quietly in a fashionable boutique is the last thing she expected really. What she finds inside is almost as surprising...
Kudos: 5





	Our Unyielding Expressions

**Author's Note:**

> never written for love live before but im nostalgic and wanted to write my two best girls seeing each other again. could this easily turn into a shippy thing? honestly yeah but im...lazy and i dont even remember the character personalities that well any more so 
> 
> yeah have fun w this unedited and super self-indulgent mess

“ _Let’s go embrace the dazzling tomorrow, let’s make all our dreams come true. That’s right, just by believing, you’ll move forward, you will!”_

Small and familiar, it catches Rin’s ears as she’s walking by the small boutique. She stops suddenly and listens. There’s no rhyme or reason beyond what she heard coming out of the store. The sound was too quiet to have been coming from any store speakers, and besides who would be playing a song from a small school idol group from a decade ago in their store? 

She doesn’t check the name as she nervously steps into the clothing boutique and tries to be cool about it. Trying to not make it entirely obvious she came in only because she heard the first song she and her friends had made in high school and trying to get a peek at who would be listening to their music. Looking around the store though…the clothes they had were cute. Really cute actually. Rin’s surprised she hadn’t heard of or stopped by this store before. Something about it also seemed familiar though she couldn’t place where. There was just something in the shape of the clothes that also reminded Rin of her school idol days. Maybe it was the nostalgia. It had to be the nostalgia. 

The music fades away and the small store is silent now as Rin continues to look around. She chances a glance up at the front of the store, all she sees is the top of a woman’s head as she looks down at her phone, cheek resting on her palm. She sighs softly and looks up.

Busted.

Rin and the woman stare at each other for a couple of seconds processing what they’re seeing.

“Ri—”

“Mi—”

They both start and stop suddenly. The other woman—Minami Kotori, Rin reminds herself—smiles awkwardly and gets up from her spot crossing the small expanse of the store. By the time she reaches Rin, her smile is genuine and excited. Rin returns the smile and suddenly someone she hasn’t seen in 9 years is in front of her. 

“Minami-san it’s been so long! When did you get back?” Rin says and as she does she notices Kotori’s face pinch. Uh-oh, did she say something wrong?

“Rin-chan—” Kotori starts to say but then stops when she notices Rin’s uncomfortable expression in return. She sighs and continues on after a moment of Rin avoiding eye contact, “No, maybe it’s for the best. We aren’t kids anymore either.” She pauses for a moment making a face and when Rin doesn’t say anything, she continues, “Do we have to go back to our family names though? I thought we’d have been close enough to never use them with each other?” 

Rin’s answering smile is small but genuine. She laughs softly before saying, “No, no you’re right. Is it okay if I only call you Kotori then?”

Kotori then smiles back, clearly more comfortable with given names still, and it is the brightest it had been this entire conversation, “Of course Rin!” 

After that, conversation flows smoothly between the two. Rin finds out that Kotori had just returned from Milan and was planning on staying now permanently and she had decided to open a physical storefront for her online clothing store. Rin also tells Kotori of her own achievements and that she currently was working in a veterinary office and was still studying to earn her own certification. Eventually though, Rin remembers what had drawn her into the store originally and she decides to have a laugh at Kotori’s expense. With love of course! Always with love for her and everyone in μ’s. 

“So…you were listening to our music when I came in weren’t you?” 

Rin had decided to start small by introducing the topic of their idols days, but Kotori apparently had other plans as her face immediately begins to redden. She waves her hands in front of her face and is avoiding Rin’s gaze as she looks around the store. 

“Well—Well, you see…haha…I—” Kotori cuts herself off there and looks down as if the floor had caught her attention. She takes a deep breath, steadying herself and has her hands on her cheeks as if she were hoping to will away the blush. “Aah…” She screams gentle into the ground.

Rin waits patiently still smiling. She was having the time of her life and all it took was one question. 

Kotori looks up now, everything about her was determined. From the stubborn furrow of her brows to the still red cheeks, and the strong meeting of eyes, Kotori was going to speak whether her embarrassed state wanted it or not. 

“I haven’t seen anyone else since coming back to Japan, because I might have lost all your emails and I’ve been feeling very lonely and it’s very nostalgic being back!” She might have been trying to say it with force, but Kotori’s words instead slur together as she speaks fast trying to get it all out before her embarrassment wins out. 

Now it’s Rin’s turn to be flustered. In the time since graduating, everyone had inevitably drifted from one another and except for Kayo-chin, Rin didn’t have anyone’s contact information anymore. She flounders on what to say next and eventually settles on saying, “We actually all fell out of contact Kotori. It’s been so long, so it wasn’t just you. I can’t really say anything about the others…”

The expression on Kotori’s face is so sad Rin can’t stand it. She has to do something to fix it. She takes a moment to think and her mind floats back to the song Kotori had been listening to earlier. “But you know, do you want to go out for karaoke together? I still have Hanayo’s information! We can go out together and it’ll be fun to sing together again, even if it’s just for ourselves!”

Rin doesn’t even wait for a response before pulling out her phone to send a message to Kayo-chin asking if she was free for karaoke again tonight. While she’s looking at her phone, she doesn’t hear anything from Kotori and suddenly Rin worries she might have overstepped, gotten too excited and was too much again. It wouldn’t have been the first time something like that happened. But when she looks up from her phone, Kotori is looking anything but uncomfortable at Rin’s suggestion, instead, her eyes were shining a bit more. For a moment Rin is taken aback by the reminder of just how pretty Kotori is still.

Until Kotori starts crying. It turns out her shiny eyes were because of tears welling up and now Rin has a crying woman in front of her. 

“Oh no…don't cry…Kotori c’mon it isn’t anything,” Rin says. She’s trying to be comforting and seemingly failing as she looks around in panic. “I’m sure we can find everyone again. It shouldn’t be too hard, I think Hanayo still talks to Honoka and we can just do it like that. One by one until we all find each other again.” 

Kotori manages to reduce her crying by then and is now only sniffling and rubbing her eyes. She tries to respond but her throat is gross from the crying so instead, she only nods while making an agreeing sound. Rin hands Kotori her handkerchief and makes soothing sounds. By the time Kotori is calm enough, Rin gets a response from Kayo-chin.

“Hanayo says she can do karaoke tonight if you want?” Rin waits for another nod from Kotori before she continues, “You can return the handkerchief then. We’ll drink and eat and sing till we’re no longer sad about anything anymore.” 

They both laugh at the idea lightly, it’s a nice idea for a moment. To not be sad or lonely ever again. Hopefully, at least with finding each other, they’ll both be a little less lonely. Kotori is still lightly dabbing at her eyes, a wobbly smile on her face when she finally speaks again. “Do you think we could trade emails, and you could give me Hanayo’s too? It’d be nice to have a way to contact you both.”

Rin almost wants to laugh but refrains, the poor woman has been through enough in this single conversation alone. “Sure, but no one uses email anymore Kotori you’re so out of it now aren’t you? We use LINE most days now…though that seems to be a little outdated as well.” The last bit is said as a quiet mutter but she takes out her phone and shows Kotori the LINE app.

Together they set up a new account for Kotori, and Rin takes the time to add in her and Kayo-chin’s accounts to Kotori’s friends list. By the end of it, Kotori is smiling brightly again as if she had never started crying in the first place. 

“All done! I have to go get ready now and finish my errands before tonight, but I’ll see you later OK?”

“Yeah!”

And with that Rin is out the door back on the street, continuing her day as she smiles at the first message Kotori sends her. She can’t help but continue the tune that drew her in.

“ _You don't have to give an answer since I understand, the place drawn in our hearts is the same. Never giving up, searching for it will be our challenge._ ”

**Author's Note:**

> shoutout to rippi for covering 「僕らのLIVE君とのLIFE」in her anniversary album and making ME nostalgic and leading to me writing this 
> 
> also yeah thats totally what i quoted at the beginning and end AND title in translated lyrics bc i think putting in japanese or romanji in fic is awkward
> 
> various hcs around this:  
> \- time and becoming an adult sucks and we always drift from ppl w/o meaning too and im so sure thats what happens to μ’s (doesnt mean they dont love each other! it just happens)  
> \- rin is too embarrassed to say kayo-chin in front of ppl other than hanayo as an adult but she still says it to herself or when its only hanayo (and then she gets drunk and starts calling kotori something just as embarrassing)  
> \- drunk karaoke singing to the music that made them cry in hs (aka their idol songs) they do it weekly


End file.
